No more crying babies onboard

I always try to choose a seat as far up front as possible. It’s a smoother ride, away from the smelly kitchen and bathroom and, usually, a little quieter.

That is, unless, a crying infant is sitting in the front row between business and economy.

This is typically where you’ll find families with babies, because the partition is used to hang airplane basinets.

But one airline can actually warn you if you’re sitting next to, or near, an infant on your flight.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has implemented a feature into its check-in process that alerts you as to the position of potentially whinging whelps, giving you the chance to put as much distance as you want between yourself and a crying kid.

When passengers travelling with a child younger than two select their seats, an icon will appear on those seats alerting others of the child’s whereabouts.

While this feature may give you a greater chance of not sitting near an infant, JAL points out some disclaimers, such as:

• child icons won’t appear if children are part of a tour booking
• icons won’t appear if bookings were made on a non-JAL website
• icons also won’t appear for passengers who bought their tickets with frequent flyer miles
• placement of the child icons may not be accurate if the aircraft type changes after booking.